PLUNDERING OF COLONEL CARSON--OF REV. MR. PAXTON--GENERAL MARTIN
REPULSES KIRBY--GILLAM PLUNDERS DURING THE ARMISTICE--OCCUPATION OF
ASHEVILLE--WHOLESALE PLUNDER--DISPATCH FROM GENERAL PALMER.
On the road from Morganton to Asheville General Gillam's men went
through their usual programme, wherever a house was to be plundered and
ladies were to be insulted and robbed! At Pleasant Garden one of them,
feeling that some clean linen was necessary to his comfort, demanded
a shirt of Colonel Carson. The Colonel assured him that the house had
been thoroughly plundered, and the only shirt remaining to him was
the one he then had on. Having satisfied himself of this fact, the
soldier compelled the Colonel (an old gentleman) to strip, and carried
off his sole remaining shirt. I believe no officers were present at
the plundering of Colonel Carson's; but at the house of the Rev. Mr.
Paxton, an aged and amiable man, a minister of the Presbyterian Church,
officers were present, and countenanced, if they did not directly aid,
the pillage. They carried off all that was portable, even to knives
and forks, and destroyed the rest of the furniture. Having found some
marmalade and molasses, they made a mixture and smeared it over the
bedroom furniture, etc. Some of them locked Mrs. Paxton in her room,
and attempted to torture her into the disclosure of hidden treasure, if
she had such. Her cries brought others to the door, and they desisted.
Mr. Paxton's horse, watch, and all his clothing were taken of course.
Such were the rudeness and brutality which accompanied these robberies,
that people were thankful to escape with their lives.
About the time that General Stoneman's return was expected in the West,
a brigade of infantry, under command of a Colonel Kirby, was moved by
the Federals from Greenville, Tenn., on Asheville, N.C. It was supposed
they would meet Stoneman there; but they arrived a little too soon,
during the second week of April, and were met by the Confederates near
Camp Woodfire, and so successfully repulsed that they turned about at
once and returned to Greenville.
The troops by whom Kirby was repulsed were a part of the command of
General J.G. Martin, referred to in our first chapter as the originator
of the plan to furnish our soldiers through the blockade-runners. He
was, as Governor Vance writes of him, a most gallant and efficient
officer, especially valuable for the prompt energy which he infused
into every department of business under his control. When it was
found that General Gillam intended to take Asheville, General Martin
ordered his whole command, consisting of Palmer's brigade (composed of
the Sixty-second, Sixty-fourth, and Sixty-ninth North-Carolina, and
a South-Carolina battery) and Love's regiment of Thomas's Legion,
to the vicinity of Swannanoa Gap, on the road from Morganton to
Asheville. Love's regiment was ordered to the Gap. They reached it
before Gillam did, and after cutting down some trees, and making a
few other arrangements to receive the raiders, waited their approach,
and on their advance repulsed them without difficulty. General Gillam
spent two days at this Gap, vainly endeavoring to effect a passage, and
finally moved off in the direction of Hickory-nut Gap. Palmer's brigade
was ordered to meet them there; but General Martin, giving an account
of this affair, adds, "I regret to say the men refused to go." Rumors
of General Lee's surrender and of Johnston's armistice were floating
through the country, and men who fought bravely as long as there was
hope were only too willing to lay down their arms at the first news of
peace.
General Martin ordered the South-Carolina battery to Greenville, S.C.,
their horses being in too bad condition for active service. On its
way it fell in with General Gillam, and was captured. On Saturday,
twenty-second of April, General Martin received notice of General
Johnston's armistice with Sherman, and immediately sent out two flags
of truce, on different roads, to meet General Gillam. On Sunday
afternoon he was met on the Hendersonville road, about six miles from
Asheville. He agreed to abide by the truce, and requested an interview
with General Martin, who accordingly, on Monday morning, twenty-fourth,
went out to his camp. The interview resulted in an agreement that
General Gillam should go through Asheville to Tennessee, and that he
should be furnished with three days' rations for his men, and that they
would observe the truce. General Gillam, it should be remarked, upon
the testimony of his own officers, had had official information of
the armistice while at Rutherfordton, on his way from Swannanoa. But,
nevertheless, he had continued the same system of depredation all along
his route from Rutherfordton, sweeping the country of horses, mules,
carriages, and property of every description, and destroying what they
could not take along. On the twenty-fifth, General Gillam arrived
in Asheville. Perfect order was observed. The nine thousand rations
required were duly issued to him. General Gillam and his staff dined
with General Martin; and as he was about to mount his horse to join
his command, in the evening, General Martin asked him if he would give
_him_ the forty-eight hours' notice provided for in the truce, before
renewing hostilities. General Gillam replied, "_Certainly--that the
notice should be given_."
That night General Gillam left his command encamped not far from
Asheville, and went on to Tennessee. During the day, while the
Federals were coming in, a party of officers dashed into town from
the French Broad road, in a state of very apparent excitement. This
was the notorious Colonel Kirke and his staff, who had approached at
the head of two regiments for the openly avowed purpose of plundering
Asheville, having heard of the dispersion of the Confederates from
Swannanoa, and feeling sure of their prize at last. But finding the
town quietly occupied by General Gillam, under the terms of the
armistice, they expressed deep disappointment, and swore roundly they
would yet return and lay it in ashes. Now they were compelled to leave
in advance of General Gillam.[18] The Federal army led in its rear
an immense train of plunder--animals of all sorts, and carriages and
wagons piled with property--household goods and treasures. One load,
however, was of questionable value, being no less than fifteen negro
babies, the mothers marching in the crowd. The Asheville people had
the mortification of seeing the guns of the South-Carolina battery,
just captured, driven through by negroes. Not a citizen was visible
in the streets; doors and windows were all closed; but I have the
best authority--that of a lady--for saying that from behind curtains
and blinds many a glance was shot from bright eyes, of contempt and
hatred, on the blue jackets. Such lightning, however, is unfortunately
innocuous, and not known to produce fatal effects outside of romances;
and so the raiders lounged carelessly about, or sat down on the
street-corners and played cards, while waiting for their rations, in
perfect immunity from such electrical batteries.
Tuesday night passed quietly, and Asheville was beginning to hope that
hostilities suspended would prove to be hostilities ended. Our troops
had almost ceased to exist in an organized form. The town was guarded
by only one company--Captain Teague's scouts--besides General Martin
and his staff, including in all about thirty officers. A small party
of Federals passed through during the twenty-sixth, under flag of
truce, carrying dispatches to General Palmer, who was then approaching
from Lincolnton by the Hickory-Nut Gap. At sunset on the twenty-sixth,
General Brown, in command of a portion of the same troops that had just
passed through with Gillam, suddenly reëntered the place, capturing all
the officers and soldiers, and giving up the town to plunder. The men
were paroled to go home, the officers to report to General Stoneman at
Knoxville.
This, be it remembered, was within twenty-four hours after the above
agreement with General Gillam, on official news of General Sherman's
armistice.
General Martin being arrested, was taken to General Brown, and after
less than an hour's absence, was permitted to return home in charge
of a United States officer. On arriving at his house, he found the
ladies of his family, with lighted candles, going over the house at
the bidding of the marauders, lighting them while they broke open
doors, trunks, drawers, and boxes, and helped themselves to what they
chose. And this was the experience of every house in the place that
night. Many were entered by three or four different gangs at once. They
swarmed in at every avenue of entrance, generally by the back-door,
having taken counsel with the negroes first. Mrs. Martin recovered
some of her stolen goods by the assistance of a guard who was detailed
after the house had been plundered. Not even the town of Fayetteville
suffered more severely from pillage. Mrs. James W. Patton and her
sister were both sick in bed. Their house was entered from front and
back at the same time. The ladies' rooms were entered, they were
dragged from their beds, their persons and the rooms searched, and
their valuables taken. This was supposed to have been done upon the
information of a servant, who had told that there were four watches
in the house. Of these four watches, three were afterward recovered,
through the agency of a Captain Patterson, Assistant Adjutant-General
to General Gillam, who had been quartered at Mrs. Patton's, and who
proved to be one of the few _gentlemen_ in that division of the United
States army.
Judge Bailey's family suffered as severely as any others, every thing
portable of value being carried off, even to the boots from the Judge's
feet. The wedding-rings of his wife and daughter were forced from
their hands. Other ladies were stopped in the street and their jewelry
forced from them. Those who applied to General Brown, who had the
honor to command this extraordinary expedition, received no redress
whatever. Dr. Chapman, a well-known and widely respected minister
of the Presbyterian Church, was so entirely robbed of all his goods
and valuables, that he had not a change of clothes left beside what
he wore. The Tenth and Eleventh Michigan regiments certainly won for
themselves in Asheville that night a reputation that should damn them
to everlasting fame. No excuse was given for this violation of the
armistice, except a lame story of their having been attacked by General
Vaughn and returning to Asheville to revenge themselves. General Vaughn
was at that time in Virginia. On Thursday, parties scoured the country
in all directions, carrying on the work of plunder and destruction. On
Friday, they left, having destroyed all the arms and ammunition they
could find and burned the armory. On Friday afternoon, they sent off
the officers they had captured under a guard. The town being left thus
without arms or protectors, the citizens, remembering Kirke's threats,
begged General Brown to leave a small force as guard; but he refused,
saying, "They might take care of themselves."
On the twenty-eighth, the following dispatch from General Palmer--who
was Brown's senior officer--to General Martin, released our officers
and men from their parole, and set the disgraceful circumstance of
their surprise and capture in its proper light, though not stigmatizing
it as it deserved:
HEADQUARTERS OF EAST TENN. CAV. DIV., }
HICKORY-NUT GAP ROAD, }
April 28, 1865. }
GENERAL: I could not learn any of the particulars of your capture
and that of Colonel Palmer and other officers and men, at Asheville,
on the twenty-sixth, and as our troops at that point were obliged to
leave immediately, there was no time for me to make the necessary
investigation.
I therefore ordered your release on a parole of honor, to report to
General Stoneman.
On further reflection, I have come to the conclusion that our men
should have given you, under all the circumstances, notice of the
termination of the armistice, and that in honor we can not profit by
any failure to give this notice. You will therefore please inform
all the officers and soldiers paroled by General Brown under the
circumstances referred to, that the parole they have given (which was
by my order) is not binding, and that they may consider that it was
never given.
Regretting that your brother officers and yourself should have been
placed in this delicate position, I am, General, respectfully your
obedient servant,
William J. Palmer,
Brevet Brigadier-General Commanding.
General J.G. Martin, Asheville.
The citizens of Asheville also owed it to General Palmer's interference
that two regiments of negroes, which had been sent over into Yancey
county, and which were bearing down upon Asheville, (it was said, at
the suggestion and with the concurrence of Kirke and Gillam,) for the
purpose of plunder and arson, were countermanded and sent over into
Tennessee.
The Asheville pillage concludes such accounts of General Stoneman's
remarkable raid through Western Carolina as I have been able to
collect. A rich harvest of incident yet remains for the future
historian. I have done little more than indicate his route. Much of
the above is taken verbatim from a ms. narrative furnished me, at my
request, by Dr. R.L. Beall, of Lenoir, so admirably and accurately
prepared that I hope it will be given to the public entire at no
distant day. It gives me pleasure to acknowledge here my indebtedness
to this gentleman, and my thanks for the generous public spirit he has
displayed in his invaluable contribution to these pages.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 18: Perhaps it is not generally known in North-Carolina that
Colonel Kirke had ardent aspirations for the provisional governorship
of his beloved native State. I saw a letter from him just after
the break-up, in which he avowed this noble ambition, evidently
anticipating no very distant day when a grateful country should reward
his patriotism and gallantry. By the way, it is said that Colonel Kirke
also is a native of Salisbury. Both Kirke and Gillam! I am afraid there
is a disposition to slander that fine old borough.]